I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon

Re:I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon by julienb_sea on Friday August 11, 2017 @04:39PM (#14993994)

I just don't see how Amazon isn't the go to. Anything handled directly by Amazon generally has the most competitive pricing, near guarantee of two day delivery or faster, and far larger selection than any other individual store. I cannot think of any general purpose store off the top of my head I would prioritize over Amazon.

To be clear, there are some specific purchases I would not make over Amazon. Amazon's clothing section is a complete joke, for example. I also like B&H, and use them when buying high end equipment.

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Re:I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon by mikeash on Friday August 11, 2017 @04:54PM (#14994168)

Amazon frequently has prices much higher than other places. It depends on the product, of course, but it's definitely not a situation where I can just buy from Amazon and be confident I got a good deal.

There isn't any general-purpose store I prioritize over Amazon, but usually I know which stores sell the things I want. For example, Home Depot often has better deals with less search hassle than Amazon for hardware stuff.

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Re:I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon by vertex-four on Saturday August 12, 2017 @02:05AM (#14996680)

Amazon's clothing section is generally reasonably priced (especially for delivery) once you've already found what you're looking for elsewhere.

The fact that Amazon's search is essentially unusable is a longstanding criticism.

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Re:I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon by eric_h on Friday August 11, 2017 @05:31PM (#14994490)

Personally I've been using Walmart for consumables (paper products, cat food & litter). Still use amazon for books (the dead tree variety) and the occasional electronic item. Delivery time is comparable, and the free shipping threshold is $50 IIRC, regardless of what you're shipping (e.g. 100lbs of cat litter).

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Re:I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon by loeg on Friday August 11, 2017 @04:56PM (#14994183)

Amazon doesn't have close to competitive pricing, even before you factor in cost of Prime and/or slow shipping times from random 3rd party vendors and/or free shipping minimums.

My go-to is now froogle.com (Google's product advert index). It used to be Amazon, but they have way too many issues now.

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Re:I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon by LoSboccacc on Friday August 11, 2017 @04:46PM (#14994088)

I started doing comparative shopping via the local trovaprezzi.it since amazon collapsed third party seller inventories by sku and seldom buy from amazon today unless is from amazon itself (not even warehouse) and still I return a third of purchases

Shame because I previously bought dozens of books completely hassle-free

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